In some courtyards, he explained how people torn town walls and built another one somewhere else so as to make a new house. Reconfiguration of space has taken place within the lost walls of Douzhuang and overall, it is a lively village, unlike the Xiangyu (相峪堡), another Ming civilian castle I visited the previous day.
I noticed that the guardian lions that stood on a pedestal on the sides of each courtyard gate were badly damaged. Master Gu explained that the Red Guards (红兵), armed with sledge-hammers, systematically smashed the each guardian lions’ heads off each guardian lions in Douzhuang.
Many buildings were in bad shape. There are several reasons for that. First they were destroyed or damaged in the 1960s and 1970s during the Cultural Revolution. Then, although most of the households are protected historical relics, villagers do not have the financial means to renovate or maintain them. As a consequence, some structures have caved in and other, abandoned, are slowly crumbling away, like the castle’s Buddhist temple (佛庙) which had been transformed into a school during the Cultural Revolution (文化大革命)
